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Strawberry Cake – no artificial colour or flavour added!

Strawberry Cake. There is no artificial colouring or flavouring used to get the beautiful pink hues in this delicious, made from scratch, strawberry cake.

Strawberry Cake no artificial colour or flavour

There are a lot of recipes out there for brightly coloured, pink strawberry cakes and to be honest, I haven’t liked many of them. When you search around on the web for Strawberry Cake, or see beautiful examples on Pinterest, I’m very often disappointed to find that they are mostly flavoured and coloured by adding strawberry jelly powder and/or food colouring to the recipe.

With so many people having sensitivity to food colouring, especially those in the red spectrum, I wanted to try to come up with a pretty pink cake recipe to share in time for Mother’s Day in about a week’s time. I will not say that I was immediately successful in my attempts at a strawberry cake; one of them was so heavy and dense that it went straight into the garbage bin.

Strawberry Cake no artificial colour or flavour

I tried using straight strawberry puree which did not colour or flavour the cake enough. I needed to concentrate both the colour and the flavour of the strawberries before I added it to the cake batter and the frosting.

I decided to make a slowly simmered and greatly reduced simple strawberry jam for this purpose and when pureed, it worked very well in both the cake and the frosting. I think the strawberry frosting is pretty essential to this cake as it really does help to carry that authentic strawberry flavour.

Concentrated strawberry puree.

To get the best colour possible, I actually did leave the strawberries out on the counter for a few days to get as ripe as possible and let their colour darken, without going bad. When strawberries are in season again and we get them at Lester’s Farm U-Pick, here in St. John’s I think I’ll pick a basket of them specifically to make this cake; you know, the one’s that get left behind and are a deep dark red. They would be perfect.

So, whether you have this strawberry cake at your Mother’s Day celebration or as a birthday cake for a special kid in your life who loves pink, know that you can achieve great flavour and colour by completely natural means.

2018 Winter update: I recently made this cake using some frozen strawberries that I bought at Costco. I’ve been told that many of the whole frozen strawberries that we buy are actually riper than the fresh ones that go to market.

Strawberry Cake no artificial colour or flavour

That kind of makes sense to me because obviously they would have a much shorter shelf life in the fresh market. Better to flash freeze them and sell them that way. This also means that they have a deeper colour which I found worked well with this recipe.

Lone story short, don’t hesitate to use frozen strawberries at any time. You’ll still have a delicious cake in the end.

You will need to prepare this puree in advance so that it has time to cool before being added to the cake batter.

In a small saucepan combine the strawberries and sugar and bring them to a gentle simmer.

Continue to simmer stirring occasionally for a half hour or so until the volume of the berries has reduced by at least half.

Allow the berries to cool before pureeing with an immersion blender or with a few pulses in a standard counter top blender. You will need a total of 1 1/4 cups of this puree for to make both the cake and the frosting. Any excess can be stored in a covered container and used as jam for your morning toast.

To prepare the cake batter.

Grease and flour two 8 or 9 inch cake pans. Line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper for easy release later. (You can also bake this cake in a large bundt pan which has been generously greased and then floured. The bundt pan may take extra time, just let the toothpick test be your guide.)

Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift together the all purpose flour, the cake flour, the baking powder and baking soda.

Mix the strawberry puree with the whipping cream.

Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter mixture alternately with the cream and strawberry puree mixture. folding well after each addition.

Always begin and end with the dry ingredients. As a general rule add the dry ingredients in 3 equal portions and the liquid ingredients in 2 equal portions.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cakes rest in the pans for 5-10 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To prepare the frosting

Cream together the butter with half of the icing sugar, then add the strawberry puree a couple of tablespoons at a time, alternately with some of the remaining icing sugar. Beat until smooth and spreadable.

The moisture content in the strawberry puree will probably vary from batch to batch so you may need a little more icing sugar if the frosting is too soft or add a tablespoon or two of milk if it is too thick. You want a nice soft, spreadable consistency.

Frost the cake with the finished icing and garnish with fresh strawberries.

Recipe Notes

Prep time does not include the additional time for the jam puree to cool.

If you want to bake this in a bundt pan follow the instructions given. If you want to poor a chocolate ganache glaze over the cake, just heat 1/4 cup of whipping cream in the microwave for a few seconds to get it slightly warm then add it to 1 cup of dark chocolate chips in a double boiler until the chocolate is smooth.

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Comments

My daughter challenged me to bake a strawberry cake with no artificial flavors or colors. This cake recipe helped me to meet and exceed that challenge! Not only was the cake all natural, but I baked it with organic ingredients and it turned out splendidly! The frosting is tangy and delicious, the cake moist and tasty. The batter was very thick; I had to scoop it into the cake pans and then slam the pans on the countertop to get the batter to spread out evenly and eliminate air bubbles. I was worried that the cake would be very dry, but it was just the opposite – moist and sweet. I love this recipe. Best strawberry cake recipe ever!

Hello. Curious of how substitutions may work for this. I want to use organic ingredients, honey in place of sugar, and coconut oil (in lieu of butter) and flour. Any ideas on how to achieve best substitution ratios?

I just made this cake and was kinda disappointed. Don’t get me wrong this cake is very good. My one complainte is that this cake did not turn out the pretty pink color shown in the photograph…. But frosting covers it so it’s all good.👍🏻

Do you have a wild guess how much frozen strawberry I would need to do this? I have frozen berries from the summer. I’m sure it will take longer to reduce them, but I’m not sure if I need to start with more or less or the same?
Thanks!
My daughter requested strawberry cake for her birthday on Sunday and I was feeling discouraged until I came across this recipe.

Absolutely LOVE this cake. We went strawberry picking last weekend and after eating ALL of the fresh strawberries we possibly could, I made a pie and then froze some. We still had tons left over so we made this cake and it was fantastic (the neighbours thought so too)! I have to admit, I’m making it again for the second time in a week because it was so delicious. Thanks for the fantastic recipe! ~Karina (Ontario, Canada)

I am going to make this cake on the weekend – my husband, the Newfoundlander in the house – loves strawberries in everything! So, I am going to surprise him with this recipe. Also, I want to say that I love your website. The recipes never disappoint and when I make recipes from you it makes my husband less homesick. So many of them remind him of his Mom’s cooking. Thanks so much!

Do you have an update on how much to use if you’re using frozen strawberries? I bought a 4 pound bag but wasn’t sure if that would be enough. Also do I let them thaw before simmering or can I put them in the pot to simmer frozen?

I made cupcakes with this recipe, turned out delicious. But my family doesn’t like too much icing (even though this one is delicious). I have the icing in a piping bag sealed in a resealable bag in the fridge to apply to the cupcakes as needed. How long do you think it will last in the fridge?

Hi, whipping cream is super expensive where I live.. would like to know if you have an idea of a good substitute? Or, at least, what is the function of the whipping cream in this recipe? So that I can experiment with the best substitute available to me. Thanks 🙂

Hello,
Just made this cake, the colour was way off, but that was due to the ripeness of the frozen strawberries. I did have trouble with the icing when I added the purée it didn’t mix very well with the butter, and made the icing clumpy.

I’m going to attempt to make this for my husband birthday dinner next week; how far in advanced can I make the cake? Would you suggest just making cake and then morning of make frosting morning of and if I make everything ahead of time should I refrigerate the cake? Thanks.

I think cakes are best served on the day they are baked unless they have a frosting or filling that’s better left overnight to set properly I’d see no problem with making it a day ahead and frosting it on the day.

Thank you so very much for sharing this delicious recipe! I searched far and wide for a all natural strawberry cake recipe and pleasantly found this one. I have now made this cake recipe twice with very small alterations. Both cakes were made for my son’s 2nd birthday parties with family and both sides of the family loved them!
The first cake I made was with a center layer of frosting and found it to be even better the second day after being stored in the refrigerator overnight! The second cake I made, with the suggestion from my dad, I made extra strawberry jam puree and used it for the center layer. The side of the family that already loved jam cake, really enjoyed the jam in the center! I still prefer the frosting but both were absolutely delicious and rich in flavor. I will be making this cake recipe again!

This cake is amazing! Everyone commented on how much this tasted like FRESH strawberries t(as opposed to that artificial strawberrish taste you often get in mixes). I am lactose intolerant, so I substituted unsweetened coconut cream for the heavy cream and butter crisco for the butter in the cake. For the frosting I used vegan butter. It was fantastic! The cake is so moist and delicious. This is definitely a keeper!

I’m curious about the cake flour as well. I’m not an expert baker by any means but I’m wondering if adding a little extra cake flour would help compensate. Usually when substituting cake flour for all-purpose you’d use 2 extra tablespoons per cup of cake flour. For example if a recipe called for 2 cups of all-purpose flour you would use 2 cups plus 4 TB (or a quarter cup) cake flour.
I’m wondering if doing that would work for this cake? Again, I’m not an expert, I usually just follow others recipes. Would love some additional input.

Lovely recipe! Thank you for sharing! I couldn’t quite get the strong strawberry flavor I wanted with the strawberry puree made with frozen strawberries, so for my second batch I put in a 1.2 oz bag of Trader Joe’s Freeze Dried Strawberries. I just crushed the contents and tossed them in the batter.

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Hi, I'm Barry. I'm Dad to 2 amazing kids, author of 3 best-selling cookbooks, a freelance food writer & full time blogger. My lifetime love of cooking & baking has led me to share over 1600 recipes on this blog over the last 10 years. Come back often, there's always great new food & recipes coming out of my St. John's, Newfoundland kitchen!

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